Tag Archive | "G.G. Smith"

Cormier Named To Preseason All-Patriot League Team; ‘Hounds Picked 5th

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Loyola University Maryland senior guard Dylon Cormier (Baltimore, Md./Cardinal Gibbons High School) was one of five players named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team, the conference announced Thursday at its annual men’s basketball media day event at the ArtsQuest Center at Steel Stacks.

Cormier, who was a two-time All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference honoree, and the Greyhounds were picked to finish fifth in their inaugural Patriot League season, just six points out of third place by the League’s coaches and sports information directors.

He was joined by four other seniors on the preseason team: Bucknell University guard Cameron Ayers, Lehigh University guard Mackey McKnight, College of the Holy Cross forward Dave Dudzinski and Boston University guard D.J. Irving, the Preseason Player of the Year.

Boston University was picked to win the League title, garnering all 18 of the possible first-place votes, as voters cannot rank the team they represent. The Terriers totaled 162 points to outdistance second-place Lafayette College, which had 130 points and the other two first-place nods.

The United States Military Academy was slotted third (115), followed by Bucknell (113) and the Greyhounds (109).

Lehigh (93), Holy Cross (70), Colgate University (49), American University (36) and the United States Naval Acadmey (23) rounded out the poll.

Cormier returns as the Greyhounds’ senior leader after leading the team in scoring a year ago. He helped Loyola to a 23-12 record and first back-to-back postseason appearances in school Division I history (since 1982), scoring 558 points, an average of 16.4 per game.

The Baltimore native scored 20 or more points seven times last year and has hit or exceeded that plateau 15 times in his three years at Loyola. He was also a solid rebounder and defender for the Greyhounds, pulling down an average of 4.6 boards per game while leading the MAAC in total steals with 62. He dished out 84 assists, as well.

Cormier was one of three Loyola players to reach the 1,000-point mark last season, eclipsing the milestone in a January game at Fairfield University. He enters the 2013-2014 campaign with 1,213 points, good for 22nd all-time at Loyola; meanwhile, his 139 career steals are seventh in school history.

Loyola hosts an exhibition game on Thursday, October 31, at 7:30 p.m. against Shippensburg University before commencing the regular-season Friday, November 8, with an 8 p.m. contest at Binghamton University in Vestal, N.Y.

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BALTIMORE – The Loyola University Maryland men’s and women’s basketball teams will be providing students, staff and fans with a sneak preview at Reitz Arena on Thursday, October 24, when they hold their third annual Late Night With the Hounds event.

Scheduled to run from 9:30 to 11 p.m., the event, which will be similar to the popular midnight madness opening-night practices held on college campuses around the country, is free and open to the public.

“This event has grown in popularity each year, and we are looking forward to opening the doors to Reitz Arena to Loyola students and our fans,” said Loyola Assistant Athletic Director for Sales and Marketing Scott Lowe. “It’s a great opportunity for our fanbase to interact with our student-athletes and coaches and to generate excitement about the upcoming seasons.”

The doors will open at 9:30 p.m. for “Late Night with the Hounds,” allowing early arriving spectators to participate in interactive games and contests with team members, win prizes and get the best seats. Prizes to be awarded courtesy of event sponsors include free burritos for a year from Qdboa, free books for a semester courtesy of the Loyola Superfans, more than $300 in gift cards and more surprises.

The event will feature a Chick-fil-A sandwich giveaway provided by the York Road/Cockeysville store for the first 100 students in the door, free meal cards from Qdoba Baltimore for the rest of the attendees, cheerleader and dance team performances, team introductions to a music and light show, team scrimmages, a dunking exhibition, interactive contests in which the students team up with players to compete for prizes and more. Player introductions will begin promptly at 10 p.m., and the event will conclude at approximately 11 p.m. Midnight Breakfast will be held for all students in attendance following the event in the Boulder Gardens Cafe.

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BALTIMORE – The head coaching tenure of G.G. Smith will officially kickoff at Loyola University Maryland on Friday, November 8, when the Greyhounds open the 2013-2014 regular-season at Binghamton University, and Smith will make his Reitz Arena debut as head coach just over a week later.

The Greyhounds announced a 29-game regular-season slate that includes 18 Patriot League games in the school’s first year in the conference. Loyola will play a home exhibition game on Thursday, October 31, against Shippensburg University before getting the season underway.

“We feel that we have a schedule that will challenge us during the non-conference season and prepare us for what should be an exciting first year in the Patriot League,” Smith said. “We are looking forward to building new rivalries with teams in the League, and we also look forward to playing some traditional rivals during non-conference play.”

Following the season-opener at Binghamton, Loyola will travel to nearby Ithaca, N.Y., to face Ivy League foe Cornell University onSunday, November 10.

The Greyhounds commence the home portion of their schedule against a familiar opponent when Fairfield University visits Reitz Arena for a Saturday, November 16, game. The Stags were a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foe during Loyola’s tenure in that league, and this year’s game will be the first of a multi-year series between the teams.

Loyola’s game against Fairfield is just a brief respite from play on the road where the Greyhounds will open with five of six. They will visit Catonsville, Md., for a Wednesday, November 20 match against UMBC before playing three-time NCAA Champion University of Connecticut on Tuesday, November 26, in Hartford.

A Monday, December 2, date with the Big 12 Conference’s West Virginia University is up next before the Greyhounds return to Reitz Arena on Wednesday, December 4, to play Catholic University.

The 169th meeting between Loyola and Mount St. Mary’s University will take place on Saturday, December 7, in Emmitsburg, Md., a game that will be part of a men’s-women’s doubleheader featuring the school’s women’s teams, as well.

Loyola will take the next 12 days off for final exams before hosting Stony Brook Unviersity on Thursday, December 19. Fellow Jesuit institution Saint Joseph’s University visits Reitz Arena on Saturday, December for the first time since 1996 when Loyola won an 80-78 double-overtime thriller. The Greyhounds and Hawks first met during the 1915-1916 season.

The final regular-season non-conference game will come in the Sunshine State between Christmas and New Year’s Day when Loyola plays at the University of Miami on Monday, December 30.

Patriot League action kicks off with games against the conference’s two United States service academies. The United States Naval Academy will make the short trip up Interstate 97 from Annapolis, Md., to Reitz Arena on Thursday, January 2, before Loyola travels to West Point, N.Y., for a Saturday, January 8, game against the United States Military Academy.

Loyola makes the trek into the Nation’s Capital on Wednesday, January 8, for a game at American University before back-to-back home games bring Lehigh University and Lafayette Unviersity to Reitz Arena on Saturday, January 11, and Monday, January 13, respectively.

The Greyhounds will face Boston University, another school making its Patriot League debut this season, on the Terriers’ home court on Monday, January 20. The game is a rematch of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament first-round game that Loyola won in Baltimore last March.

Following the game in the Bay State, Loyola will face Bucknell University on its home court on Wednesday, January 22. The teams have played a non-conference affair each of the last four years with the visiting team winning each time.

Colgate University will make its first trip to Loyola on Saturday, January 25, and Loyola then heads to Worcester, Mass., for aWednesday, January 29, game at College of the Holy Cross.

The second-half of the Patriot League schedule starts Saturday, February 1, when Loyola plays at Army, followed by a Wednesday, February 5 home date versus American.

Games in the Lehigh Valley on Wednesday, February 8, versus Lehigh, and Saturday, February 12, are next, before Boston University returns to Reitz Arena on Saturday, February 15.

Bucknell is the next visitor to Loyola on Wednesday, February 19, before the Greyhounds head to Hamilton, N.Y., for a Saturday, February 22, game at Colgate.

Holy Cross closes the home regular-season schedule on Wednesday, February 26, and the regular-season road slate finishes on Saturday, March 1, at Navy.

All 10 conference teams will make the Patriot League Championships with first round action commencing Monday, March 3. The higher seeded team in each game will host the contest throughout the tournament.

Quarterfinal action takes place on Wednesday, March 5, and the semifinals will be held on Saturday, March 8. The League’s automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Championships will be on the line in the title game on Wednesday, March 12.

Game times and television information will be announced at a later date, and the schedule is subject to change. Stayed tuned to www.loyolagreyounds.com for complete information.

BALTIMORE – Dan Ficke, a 2009 and 2010 graduate of Loyola University Maryland, has returned to his alma mater as an assistant men’s basketball coach, filling out the first staff of new head coach G.G. Smith.

Ficke, who played four seasons at Loyola, graduated from the school in 2009 with his bachelor of business administration degree. He then earned his M.B.A. with a concentration in management in 2010.

“It’s great to have Dan back with the Loyola basketball family,” Smith said. “He is someone who knows what this program has accomplished and where we are headed from here. Dan has great ties in the basketball community across the nation, as well, and he grew up around the game with a great mentor in his dad, ‘Big Bill.’”

He joins the Loyola staff after spending the last three seasons at Wake Forest University where he spent the 2012-2013 season as the Special Assistant to the Head Coach/Director of Scouting and Recruiting. Prior to that, he was the program’s Assistant Director of Operations from 2010-2012.

In his roles with the Demon Deacons, Ficke was a liaison between the staff members and the players, monitoring the players’ academics and daily schedules and was responsible for assisting with team travel, meals and other logistics within the basketball office.

Ficke was a part of some of the most successful Division I teams at Loyola during his time with the Greyhounds from 2005-2009. He was a member of teams that won 64 games, including the 2007-2008 team that won what was then a school Division I record 19 contests.

“I am thrilled to be back home at Loyola and working with G.G. Smith,” Ficke said. “This is a place where I have great memories, and I am so proud as an alum of what the program has accomplished. I look forward to working with G.G., the players and my fellow coaches to help continue the winning tradition that has been built.”

His freshman season was cut short before it started with a shoulder injury, and he made his collegiate debut in 2006-2007. He developed into a key contributor in the Greyhounds’ frontcourt during the 2007-2008 campaign when he saw action in 20 games.

In his final season with the Greyhounds, 2008-2009, Ficke played in all but one of 32 games. He made his first start for Loyola in a New Year’s Eve game at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke.

Following the conclusion of his playing career, Ficke spent the 2009-2010 season as as the head junior varsity and assistant varsity coach at nearby Boys Latin School of Maryland.

Before coming to Loyola, Ficke earned All-Colorado Second Team honors and All-America honorable mention on the prep level at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colo.

Ficke grew up around the best in the game of basketball, following his dad, Bill, who was an NBA assistant coach and scout for the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz and New Jersey Nets where he coached alongside Larry Brown and Doug Moe. Bill also played at Belmont Abbey College for legendary coach Al McGuire.

Dan serves as the president of the JoAnn B. Ficke Cancer Foundation, an organization named in honor of his late mother who passed away in 2007. Bill and Dan founded the charity two years later to generate support for cancer treatment, awareness to relieve the suffering of cancer patients and their families and to facilitate research.

Ficke joins Smith’s staff that includes assistant coaches Keith Booth and Josh Loeffler. Director of Basketball Operations Kevin Farrell also returns for his second year with the Greyhounds.

BALTIMORE – A veteran of the Patriot League, Josh Loeffler has joined the men’s basketball staff at Loyola University Maryland as an assistant coach, Head Coach G.G. Smith announced today.

Loeffler, who spent the 2012-2013 season as the director of basketball operations at Rutgers University, was an assistant coach at Lafayette College where he helped Fran O’Hanlon’s teams reach the Patriot League Championship Game in 2010 and 2011.

“I am very pleased that Josh is joining our staff here at Loyola,” said Smith. “He brings tremendous experience from the Patriot League that will be great as we transition to the conference. His recruiting connections are vast, and his experience as a highly successful Division III head coach is something else that attracted us to him.”

Loeffler said, “I am excited to be a part of Loyola basketball and work with Coach Smith. He was obviously a big part of the success Loyola has had recently, and I am looking forward to helping continue the winning trend Loyola has been on.”

He was the recruiting coordinator for the Leopards, oversaw team travel and budgeting and was the program’s liaison to the admissions and compliance offices. Under his coordination, Lafayette’s 2011 recruiting class was ranked the highest in the Patriot League.

At Lafayette, Loeffler was responsible for the recruitment of an All-Patriot League First Team and Second Team performer, three All-Rookie Team members. He also coached two additional Leopards who earned All-Patriot League honors and another who was the 2012 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

“Josh is just a terrific as a coach on the floor, as a recruiter, and will be a great addition to Loyola’s program,” O’Hanlon said. “He had a large part in the recent success that we’ve had here at Lafayette, and I’m sure he will bring the same dedication and commitment to Loyola.”

Prior to working at the Easton, Pa., school, Loeffler was the head coach at NCAA Division III school Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., where he led the Ducks to a 46-13 record from 2006-2008.

In his first season as a head coach, he guided Stevens to a 23-7 record and a ahare of the Skyline Conference regular-season title. The Ducks garnered an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament where they beat 18th-ranked Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Ramapo College to advance to the Sweet 16 where they fell to eventual national champion Amherst College.

Stevens finished that season ranked 24th in the country and first in the NCAA Atlantic Region in the D3Hoops.com poll, and Loeffler was named the D3Hoops.com Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.

The following year, 2007-2008, Loeffler’s team matched the school record set in his first year with 23 wins (in 29 games). Stevens moved to the Empire 8 Conference that year and shared the regular-season title with Ithaca College. The Ducks lost to eventual Empire 8 champion Nazareth College in the conference semifinals, but they received the top overall seed for the ECAC Division III Metro Championship where they won three games and captured the ECAC Metro title.

Before he was a head coach at Stevens, Loeffler was an assistant coach in 2005-2006 at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., for current Bucknell University Head Coach Dave Paulsen.

He was a graduate assistant coach at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., in 2004-2005, and he broke into coaching at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., during the 2004-2004 season. At Hamilton, he helped the basketball team achieve a 19-8 record and earn an NCAA Tournament bid, and he was also the defensive line coach for the Continentals’ football team.

Loeffler graduated from Swarthmore College in 2003 with a degree in economics. He was a multi-sport student-athlete for the Garnet, earning four varsity letters as a forward on the basketball team and one as a tight end on the gridiron.

The native of West Grove, Pa., is married to the former Helen Leitner, and they have a young daughter, Alison.

BALTIMORE – No stranger to Loyola University Maryland athletics or the Baltimore-Washington metro area, Keith Booth has been named an assistant coach for the Loyola men’s basketball team, head coach G.G. Smith announced today.

Booth, 38, has served as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Loyola for the last two seasons and was an assistant coach at the University of Maryland from 2004-2011 for then head coach Gary Williams.

“I am excited that Keith will be bringing his basketball knowledge as a player, coach and recruiter to our staff,” Smith said. “In learning to know him as a co-worker at Loyola for the past two years, I have seen that he has a tremendous care for players, and (Loyola head women’s basketball coach) Joe Logan could not have spoke higher of Keith as a person or a coach.

“Keith brings an broad understanding of not only Baltimore basketball and recruiting, but his experience as a player and coach at Maryland and player in the NBA will be huge benefits to our program.”

A Baltimore native, Booth played at Dunbar High School, earning Parade and McDonald’s All-America honors for the Poets in 1993. He helped guide his team to the Maryland Class ‘A’ State Championship and was named the Baltimore City and State of Maryland Player of the Year that season by The Baltimore Sun.

“It is an honor to continue to be a part of Loyola athletics, and I am looking forward to working with these players and Coach Smith to continue the success Loyola men’s basketball has accomplished,” said Booth.

He continued his playing career at the University of Maryland as one of Williams’ first major recruits to College Park. Booth led the Terrapins to four NCAA Tournaments, including a pair of Sweet Sixteen appearances, helping Maryland begin its streak of 11 consecutive NCAA berths in 1994.

In his senior season at Maryland, Booth led the Terrapins in scoring (19.5 ppg), rebounding (7.9 rpg) and steals (2.0 spg) and is still Maryland’s all-time leader in free throws made (576). Booth finished his impressive career at Maryland among the program’s all-time leaders in scoring (9th, 1,776 points), rebounding (6th, 916 points), steals (5th, 193) and he is one of 15 players to have his jersey honored above the Terrapins’ home court at Comcast Center.

Booth earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors four times at Maryland, garnering honorable mention as a freshman and sophomore before receiving second-team honors as a junior and first-team laurels in his final season, 1996-1997.

He was a member of the Associated Press All-America Third Team following his senior season. Booth played alongside the likes of Joe Smith, Rodney Elliott and Johnny Rhodes in his four seasons as a Terrapin.

Booth’s teams appeared in two NCAA Sweet Sixteens and finished his sophomore season as ACC regular season co-champions and ranked No. 10 in the country in the final AP poll. That year (1994-95), the Terrapins compiled a 26-8 record, including a perfect 16-0 record at Cole Field House. Booth finished his Maryland career with averages of 14.1 points per game and 7.3 rebounds.

After completing his career at Maryland, Booth was a first-round draft pick (28th overall) in 1997 by the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. He was a member of the Michael Jordan-led Bulls team that won the 1998 NBA Championship.

Booth continued his basketball career as a coach, earning his bachelor of arts in criminology and criminal justice degree from Maryland in 2003. He became an assistant at Maryland in 2004 and helped guide the Terrapins to no fewer than 19 wins in his seven seasons on Williams’ bench.

During his time at Maryland, the team reached three NCAA Tournaments and compiled an overall record of 146-87 (.627). The 2009-2010 version of the Terrapins went 13-3 in ACC action and tied for the conference regular-season title.

“It is a great day for the Smith family; it is a great feeling, and I am really proud of G.G., not only as his mentor and father, but also as his former college coach, watching him grow and mature into the person he is today. He was part of some of the six or seven winningest years of my coaching career, so he has the pedigree of being around winning programs. He has also benefitted being with Jimmy Patsos and helping restore that program to greatness at Loyola.

“His mom, and I… you are talking about one proud mother and father. He is a credit to our profession. He has always done things the right way, growing up as a youngster, as a player, as an assistant coach, and I believe he will be as a head coach. He is a remarkable, hard-working person. G.G. was mature beyond his age as a kid, and he has a beautiful family now with Lorie and Jayne.

“Anything I can do to help him and the Loyola program, I am happy to do it. We will be in constant contact, as we always are.

“There are a lot of proud family members in the Maryland area because that is where G.G. was born (Leonardtown, Md.). I think it was destiny that he became a head coach in that state.”

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BALTIMORE – Orlando “G.G.” Smith has been named the head men’s basketball coach at Loyola University Maryland, the school’s president, Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J., announced today at a press conference in Reitz Arena.

Smith, who is the son of current Texas Tech University Head Coach Tubby Smith, has been an assistant at Loyola for the past six seasons under former coach Jimmy Patsos.

“At Loyola, we take great pride in a Greyhounds athletics program where our students’ achievements and contributions in the classroom and in the community are as remarkable as their accomplishments in competition,” Fr. Linnane said. “G.G. Smith shares this commitment, and I know he will build on our program’s recent successes to bring even greater excitement and spirit to Loyola basketball and our university.”

Smith, 36, is the 20th head coach in Loyola history and takes the reins of a program that won 62 games over the last three seasons and reached the postseason in each of the last two.

“It is an honor to be asked to continue building on what Loyola men’s basketball has accomplished,” Smith said. “Loyola is a wonderful school that has been a great home for the last six years, and I look forward to leading the program going forward. I would like to thank Father Linnane, (executive vice president) Susan Donovan, (vice president) Marc Camille and (assistant vice president and director of athletics) Jim Paquette for their support and commitment to Loyola basketball and me.”

Smith was a three-year starter at guard at the University of Georgia where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1999, and he later received his master’s degree from the University of Kentucky.

“G.G. is the right person to lead our men’s basketball program as Loyola transitions to the Patriot League next season,” said Jim Paquette, Loyola’s assistant vice president and director of athletics. “His knowledge of basketball, care for our student-athletes and desire to develop them as leaders has been evident in his time at Loyola, and we are excited that G.G. will build on the success Loyola basketball has achieved in recent years.”

As a member of the Loyola coaching staff, Smith helped guide the Greyhounds to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994 when Loyola won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title in 2012. That season, the Greyhounds won a school Division I record 24 games and also were successful in a school-best 13 conference games.

“G.G. was a huge part of our success,” Patsos said of his former assistant. “G.G. is not only a tremendous coach, but he is a better person. His knowledge of the game is outstanding, and I believe that he will be a great leader of the program going forward.”

During his time at Loyola, Smith has handled many on-court coaching and scouting responsibilities for the Greyhounds. In the last two seasons, Loyola posted its first two Division I 20-win seasons, and this year’s trip to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament Quarterfinals marked the first back-to-back postseason appearances since 1951-1953.

Smith has been instrumental in the development of Loyola guard Dylon Cormier, a back-to-back All-MAAC performer who earned First Team honors in 2012-2013 when he averaged 16.4 points per game. In his six years at Loyola, Smith has coached 10 All-MAAC performers, four members of the league’s All-Rookie Team, four MAAC Sixth Players of the Year and a Rookie of the Year.

“I am very excited that G.G. Smith is our next coach,” Cormier said. “He has played at the highest levels, and as a team, we are looking forward to playing for him. He knows us as players, but he knows so much about basketball that we love to learn from him.”

Prior to joining the staff at Loyola prior to the 2007-2008 season, Smith was an assistant at nearby Johns Hopkins University in 2006-2007, helping the Blue Jays to a 24-5 record and berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

He spent two seasons, 2004-2006, at Armstrong Atlantic State University. The Pirates finished 23-8 in 2005-2006 and earned a No. 2 seed in that season’s NCAA Division II Tournament. Smith was an assistant at Tennessee Tech University in 2002-2003 when the Eagles went 21-10 and were the runners-up in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

After graduating from Georgia, Smith was an assistant coach for a year at Lexington (Ky.) Catholic High School before spending two years, 2000-2002, as a graduate assistant coach at the Kentucky. The Wildcats advanced to a Sweet Sixteen and won an Southeastern Conference regular-season title in his time at Rupp Arena.

“While all of us at Loyola know that the men’s basketball coaching position is a great job and the vacancy comes at an exciting point in time due to the team’s recent successes and the University’s impending move to the Patriot League, it quickly became evident to me that the college basketball world has caught on as well,” said Marc Camille, Ed. D. Loyola’s vice president of enrollment management and communications, who chaired the search process. “The level of interest in the position from quality candidates around the country made the process of narrowing down the pool more challenging, but equally so, more promising. We could not be more pleased with how things turned out.”

Smith earned his bachelor of science in health and physical education from Georgia in 1999. He was a three-year starter and four-year letterwinner for the Bulldogs as a point guard. He earned All-SEC Third Team honors and helped Georgia advance to the NCAA Tournament twice, including to the 1996 Sweet Sixteen.

He graduated as the program’s all-time leader in games played (129), wins in a season (24) and 3-pointers in a game (three).

Smith then earned his master’s degree in education in sports management from Kentucky in 2002.